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Benjamin Riley

@benjaminjriley.bsky.social

6K followers 850 following 3.4K posts

Founder of Cognitive Resonance, a new venture dedicated to helping people understand human cognition and generative AI. Advocate for humans.

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · May 9

In April 2025 I delivered a speech at the ASU+GSV ed-tech conference titled "AI Will Not Revolutionize Education." It touches on human cognition, gen AI, and the nature of scientific and social revolutions. I worked hard at this, I hope you'll watch and share.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=u0_t...

AI Will Not Revolutionize Education

YouTube video by Cognitive Resonance

www.youtube.com

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 47m

A long-running debate in physics is whether quantum mechanics is describing something real, or should rather be thought of as a metaphorical abstraction. I think the same question applies to "intelligence," as I write about this week. buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com/p/the-quantu...

The quantum of intelligence

What might a long-running debate in physics suggest about human cognition and AI?

buildcognitiveresonance.substack.com

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 1d

Yes, it's a lazy argument invoked by people who never read what Plato actually contended. Hope my lil contribution to the debate helps you push back on it!

Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 1d

Well first of all it was allegedly Plato, and you're right to be annoyed, as he wasn't against writing! I wrote an essay so I'd never have to deal with this dumb argument again. open.substack.com/pub/buildcog...

Plato was an AI skeptic

(Maybe) But he definitely wasn't universally hostile to writing

open.substack.com

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 1d

@seantrott.bsky.social has written insightful commentary on this. open.substack.com/pub/seantrot...

"Mechanistic interpretability" for LLMs, explained

Trying to peek inside the "black box".

open.substack.com

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 1d

It's remarkable both for the unhinged hallucination that "Antifa" is some sort of organized effort and the commitment to using extrajudicial killings as countermeasure. Fever dream on top of fever dream.

Prem Thakker ツ @premthakker.bsky.social · 1d

My gosh. After the US bombed multiple boats in the middle of the ocean, murdering people on grounds that they were allegedly "carrying drugs," the US Attorney General says "Just like we did with cartels, we're going to take the same approach, President Trump, with Antifa."

Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 1d

"“We’re sort of counterfeiting the human experience at scale across several dimensions simultaneously and then putting that in the hands of children and hoping that works out. That’s a high-stakes gamble.” www.sfexaminer.com/news/technol...

Students raise alarms about AI use

Study connects schools’ adoption with concerns.

www.sfexaminer.com

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 1d

This is very interesting. And points to an interesting and productive use of LLMs for certain forms of modeling social behavior.

Jennifer Ouellette @jenlucpiquant.bsky.social · 26d

This Atlantic analysis echoes the long convo I had recently with a European researcher who maintains that social media cannot be fixed because the problem lies in its very infrastructure and human nature cannot deal with it. I increasingly think he is correct. arstechnica.com/science/2025...

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 1d

If someone who was interested in QM and the CI and wanted to learn more about Bohr's views specifically, what might you recommend reading? (This someone is a layman who skips over the complex math equations.)

Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 1d

This is what's so remarkable (for me, infuriating) about boosting AI usage in schools. We are *already* seeing modern society straining under the corrosive effects of social media -- now we want to push related technology down into our schools? A long-term recipe for disaster.

Christopher Mims @mims.bsky.social · 2d

Humans evolved a cognitive 'social proof' system for establishing what's true (if enough of the people around me believe something, I'll go along) and media fragmentation + social media has completely and totally hijacked it

Feels like AI will only make this worse

Lord Businessman II @lordbusinessman.bsky.social · 2d

"no in the future people will cryptographically verify what's true and-" no they will not. People are fucking stupid.

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 2d

Bryan Stevenson is such a remarkable and admirable American. One wonders what might happen if he ran for high office. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/08/u...

Civil Rights Lawyer Bryan Stevenson on How America’s Story Should Be Told

www.nytimes.com

Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 2d

I'm finding it surreal that there's broad agreement in the finance community that we are in an AI bubble. Even unapologetic boosters such as Ben Thompson of Stratechery are like, yep, obviously in a bubble. Given that much of the global economy is being propped up by AI, this should be worrying!

Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 2d

Bank of England flags risk of ‘sudden correction’ in tech stocks inflated by AI - on.ft.com/4o3RheA

Bank of England flags risk of ‘sudden correction’ in tech stocks inflated by AI

Financial Policy Committee warns equity prices are at levels comparable with dotcom bubble

on.ft.com

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 2d

Ah, sorry to learn this. I read a quote recently that all of cognitive science is organized around proving Searle wrong -- whether that is true or not, speaks to his enduring impact on our thinking about thinking.

Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 2d

This is sublime.

Ron Filipkowski @ronfilipkowski.bsky.social · 2d

Kristi Noem confronts enemy combatants in the Portland war zone today.

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 2d

This is literally the core dramatic premise of the satirical film Mountainhead. "Let's coup it out. Let's coup it just a little bit."

Carl Quintanilla @carlquintanilla.bsky.social · 3d

“.. On closer inspection, however, it turned out that the image was not a photograph of a real event in Portland, but instead a fabrication created by combining two photographs of scenes that unfolded in South America nearly a decade apart ..”

@theguardian.com
www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 3d

@melaniemitchell.bsky.social has a new paper out that touches on this empirically, I'm hoping to write about it this week

Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 3d

Oh man I'm embarrassed, it WAS you! I followed you here after listening. You called it.

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 3d

Our low-grade civil war is escalating. Citizens are organizing to resist American fascism and regime-loyal forces are prepared to shoot and kill them, or try to.

My despondency fuels my desire to act. Turn out on October 18. There is still time to save this country.

Chicago Sun-Times @chicago.suntimes.com · 3d

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government’s claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed.
trib.al/9Sxu9IN

Attorney for woman shot by Border Patrol claims officer said 'Do something b-----' before shooting

Body-camera video appears to contradict the government's claim that Marimar Martinez, 30, drove toward officers before one of them opened fire at her late Saturday morning in Brighton Park, her attorney claimed. A judge ordered Martinez and a co-defendant released pending trial.

trib.al

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 3d

@jacsonbevens.bsky.social had a draft analyst on his podcast who was like, dude simply cannot change directions. Been troubling me since.

Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 3d

"You're making disgusting, over-processed hot dogs out of the lives of human beings."

Chibdm @chibdm.bsky.social · 3d

Robin Williams' daughter has some quality thoughts on AI slop

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 4d

This is excellent. In the era of American fascism, no one has disappointed me more than Ezra Klein. Squandering his massive platform to shill for Charlie Kirk and AI. An abundance of shame.

Perry Bacon @perrybaconjr.bsky.social · 4d

"Democracy depends on all of us, and especially with a broader public platform, drawing the line. It is an obligation we must accept. Who are we to draw the line? We are citizens who demand to live in a democratic Republic," writes @thomaszimmer.bsky.social. democracyamericana.com/posts/c5d024...

Where Is the Line?

On Ezra Klein, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the struggle to define the boundaries of what is acceptable in America

democracyamericana.com

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 5d

Yes

Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 5d

So great to be back in America after a few weeks of travel.

CNN @cnn.com · 6d

Adults and children alike were pulled from their Chicago apartments, crying and screaming, during a large overnight raid that has left tenants and neighbors shaken. https://cnn.it/4pPCXIt

37 people arrested and American kids separated from parents after ICE raid at Chicago apartments | CNN

Adults and children alike were pulled from their Chicago apartments, crying and screaming, during a large overnight raid that has left tenants and neighbors shaken.

www.cnn.com

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 8d

Thank you for sharing it, Alberto!

Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 11d

I continue to watch @nhannahjones.bsky.social in awe. This paragraph, whew. Charlie Kirk was a bigot. The national delusion to the contrary is indicative of how rapidly we are unraveling.

From Nikole Hannah-Jones's article on Charlie Kirk:

"Oklahoma, of course, is a deeply red state. But in the wake of Kirk’s death, individuals and institutions across the nation moved not just to condemn his killing and political violence, but to venerate him. It was unsettling to many to see politicians from across the political spectrum speak with reverence about a man who espoused the racist Great Replacement Theory, which argues that white Americans are being systematically replaced by multiculturalism and by brown and Black immigrants; who continuously claimed that “there’s a war on white people in this country; who said it was “a fact” that “prowling Blacks go around for fun to go target white people”; who gave a platform to people who believe in eugenics and race science; who contended that Black people commit more crime than white people and that the blame lies in a Black culture that accepts that Black men “impregnate women and they don’t stay around”; who referred to a transgender athlete as an “abomination” and called “the transgender thing” a “throbbing middle finger to God”; and who declared that Islam, the world’s second-largest religion, “is not compatible with Western civilization” and that it is a sword being used “to slit the throat of America.”"

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Benjamin Riley @benjaminjriley.bsky.social · 17d

I get it. I relish that the predominant posture here is AI hater, but it can be a bit much.